1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image capture apparatus, an image processing method, and a program. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image capture apparatus, an image processing method, and a program for determining corresponding points between a plurality of images photographed from different points of view.
2. Description of the Related Art
Corresponding points between images photographed from a plurality of different points of view may be searched for to calculate the distance of objects appearing in the images from cameras. Many techniques for accurately and quickly searching for corresponding points between images have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-085566 discloses a technique for determining correspondences between images with high accuracy. In the disclosed technique, optimum correspondences are assigned to pixel sequences on horizontal scanning lines using the Viterbi algorithm, which is a dynamic programming algorithm.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 07-103734 discloses a technique for quickly determining correspondences between images. In the disclosed technique, images that are reduced in size are used to form a layered structure in which results of correspondence detection in low-resolution layers are transferred to higher-resolution layers to reduce the amount of correspondence search processing in high-resolution layers.